Brand Consulting

I am fortunate to be in front of the camera, continually travel to new food places and run my brand consulting practice. It's my passion…my life. For more than 20 years, I have been working with food and lifestyle brands to connect them with consumers, tell their fascinating stories and build business. Innovation & collaboration creates a better and more delicious world for all of us.

L&D Enterprises works with business leaders, marketing and innovation teams, and agencies to create current market opportunity and future relevance. We uncover insights into today's culture from the people creating it, allowing brands to intersect with emerging trends and innovate to bring products and services to the marketplace that are engaging and relevant.

We specialize in:

New category development

Trend tracking and translation

Immersion and insights programs

Product innovation

Path-to-market strategies

Influencer networks and outreach

Messaging and story development

In narrowing the gap between brands and future trends, we generate opportunities today that connect with consumers tomorrow.

Brands Served

Case Studies

Verlasso Salmon

How do you enter the marketplace with a new product and create an entirely new category? We worked with the Verlasso business and brand design teams to prepare the seafood industry for the introduction of "harmoniously raised" salmon. The multi-faceted brand communications program centered on thought leadership and reseller and consumer engagement, allowing Verlasso to engage with the industry and cultivate customers simultaneously. Within the first year of launch, the salmon was in retailers across the country and named one of the industry's products of the year.

Panera Bread

How do you transform fast food and combat a full on anti-carb movement at the same time? It's a challenge that Panera Bread faced expanding further into the food service marketplace. With a willingness to embrace a non-traditional brand communications strategy that included collaborations with Food Network and celebrity chefs, alliances with some of the most respected baking authorities in the country, and a partnership with the nation's top cookbook publisher, the brand cracked open fast casual category and became one of the industry's hot growth companies.

Global Food Brand

Food culture has gone mainstream. And one global food brand isn't part of it. Together with The Company of Others, we partnered with this Fortune 500 food brand and gathered the country's leading food and drink culture creators to define, build and arrive at a future in which the brand is leading the world of food. With 40 chefs and mixologists, six cities, 80 food destinations and 400+ real time insights, we closed the gap between trend and our client, bringing a great brand more relevance and scale to amazing innovations.